


A Witch in a Pinch

by OMGitsgreen



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Demeter!Will, Hecate!Nico, M/M, Solangelo Week, Solangelo Week 2018, godswap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-25
Updated: 2018-08-25
Packaged: 2019-07-02 03:09:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15787728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OMGitsgreen/pseuds/OMGitsgreen
Summary: "Nico knew Lou Ellen had a point. But Nico was also a creature of habit and he was reallyreallygood at casting curses." Nico, being the stubborn child of Hecate that he is, needs some practice with other types of spell-casting. Lou Ellen seems to have a fix...except that neither of them account for a certain child of Demeter to make their plans go awry. GodSwap AU for Solangelo Week!Solangelo Week- Day 6- Swap





	A Witch in a Pinch

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! I managed to get this drabble up! Hurray! I hope you all enjoy this little fluffy jaunt.  
> Solangelo Week- Day 6- Swap

_Sometimes one wishes to incubate a dream so that you can open a door to the past. This elixir specifically allows one to access a lifetime’s hidden memories._

_Ingredients:_

_Gardenia petals_  
_Honeysuckle blossoms_  
_Lilac blossoms_  
_Coconut Oil_  
_Directions:_

_1\. Infuse gardenia petals, lilac petals, and honeysuckle blossoms into coconut oil (see infusion instructions on page 25, be aware it may require as many as six weeks to achieve the desired intensity of scent and due to the lack of commercially available non-synthetic alternatives to gardenia and lilac you’ll have to infuse your own oils)._

_2\. Strain infused oil and discard flowers_

_3\. Reserve the oil. Add one tablespoon to bath to stimulate dreaming, or rub on soles of feet for similar effects._

Nico groaned and let his head fall into his spell encyclopedia. It was hopeless, well and truly hopeless at this point. He couldn’t do this, not one bit.

“What’s the matter?” Lou Ellen asked him as she sat next to him on the workbench. Nico grimaced as he looked up from his sulking in order to sulk some more.

“It’s going to take me six weeks at the very least to make this stupid dream oil,” Nico grumbled as he closed his book with a definitive snap of the thick cover. “I would totally just try something else if Clovis hadn’t given half the payment upfront.”

“Yeah, you aren’t particularly good at being patient,” Lou Ellen said with a shrug.

“Are you sure you can’t just take this?” Nico asked his older sister. “Please, come on. You know I suck at potion making.”

“Nico, you can’t just hex and curse. Hecate challenges all of us to learn and grow as demigods and witches, and as head counselor I would be doing you a disservice to let you stay away from your challenges,” Lou Ellen said very officially, before a sly grin slide across her black-lipsticked lips. “Also, I just love to see you squirm.”

“Gods you suck,” Nico said as he threw a pillow at her, she just cackled, caught it, and fell back onto the bed. “Okay but seriously, for these kinds of spells I need to have fresh cut flowers. Where in Hades am I supposed to find fresh flowers in November?”

“Seriously?” Lou Ellen asked with a raised brow. “I get you’ve only been casting hexes and curses, but really?

“Hey don't judge!” Nico demanded.

“Listen, just go make friends with a kid from Cabin Four this afternoon and you'll have all the flowers you could ever need or use,” Lou Ellen told him as she bounced idly on her bed.

“Oh I get it, this is all a ploy to get me to interact with people,” Nico grumbled. “That’s lame Lou Ellen.”

“Whatever,” Lou Ellen scoffed. “Just go be nice. Now would be the best time.” 

“Fine, whatever,” Nico said as he stood up and marched to the door. “I'm going to go get a soda.”

“Kay, have fun tonight,” Lou Ellen said with a scheming grin. Nico made a face and then slammed the door to the cabin behind him. He sulked across the grass. 

Nico knew Lou Ellen had a point. Cursing and Mist Manipulation were great skills in a fight, but he also knew he ought to be practicing different kinds of casting while he had the opportunity, the best magically charged ingredients to do so, and people willing to test out the concoctions or spells he did. But Nico was also a creature of habit and he was really _really_ good at casting curses. But he had been in a rut lately, considering the lack of reasons to make said curses. Maybe this was what he needed, not that he would tell Lou Ellen that. He didn't want to give her the satisfaction.

Nico bribed a can of coke off of Annabeth, before finding a spot to sit in the shade. For a few minutes Nico contented himself with meditation as he eyed Cabin Four. Aesthetically Nico could appreciate it, with flowering vines and roots and trees. He could just go over and ask, but he wasn't sure he knew how. And at some point he must have drifted off into sleep because it seemed like the next moment he was being shaken gently awake.

“Hey there,” said Will Solace with a bright, cheerful smile. “Not used to seeing you in these parts. Nice leaves.”

Nico spluttered and blew the leaf that had fallen onto his face off, before brushing off the rest to Will Solace’s obvious enjoyment as he laughed at Nico’s grimace. Nico was glad for the shade that probably hid his flush of embarrassment. Will Solace, who was wearing a soft pastel green tank top that showed off his tanned freckled shoulders, and that made his eyes the powdery blue of forget-me-nots was laughing at Nico’s expense. Nico was sure he ought to be furious, but the sound was so nice he could hardly summon up tepid annoyance.

“Oh shove it,” Nico grumbled as he stood up, getting the grass off his jeans, mostly doing it because he didn't know where he should be looking between the tank top and the running shorts and he felt stupid for getting so worked up over nothing but a cute boy. This is why he didn't want to do this, Nico thought miserably. The less people I interact with, the less people know how much I am incapable of basic human interaction.

“I didn't know this was your preferred napping spot,” Will said pleasantly, seemingly oblivious to Nico’s plight.

“It's not, I was just-” Nico cut himself off before clearing his throat. “Well, it’s fine. I actually had something I wanted to ask, well, anyone in your cabin.”

“Well if any old Demeter kid will do, then I should be up for the task,” Will said with a grin as he adjusted his bag on his shoulder. “What did you need?”

“You wouldn't happen to have any lilac, gardenia, and honeysuckle would you?” Nico asked him, voice cracking and only deepening his despair.

“We do, actually. Would you like to come see?” Will asked.

“Uh, yeah sure,” Nico said numbly, and Will gave a wave to motion for Nico to follow him. Nico walked behind Will into the back of the cabin, where rows of plants were gathered. Nico recognized some of them, but others he had no clue. It was an explosion of color and sundrenched scents and magic that almost made him dizzy. As Will walked, occasionally he reached out to inspect a bud or allow a sprout to curl around his fingers or wrist.

He leaned down by a bush of soft drooping lilacs, pulling a bag close for him. With a gentle touch he carefully felt along the beach as if for the proper spot. Nico shivered as he did so, suddenly feeling like he was watching something private.

“Usually I like to cut lilac in the early morning or the late afternoon,” Will hummed, talking mostly to himself. “Until you use it make sure you keep it in a tall vase, alright?”

“I...uh, okay,” Nico said, running his tongue over his suddenly very dry lips. “Why in the early morning or late evening?”

“It’s what the lilac prefers,” Will explained as if that was a real explanation, but somehow when Will said it Nico believed it. He rubbed a hand across his cheek, smearing dirt, and Nico itched to brush his own fingers against his skin. Will followed the same procedure with the honeysuckle, and Nico trailed behind him...still watching Will’s gold curls. He wondered if they would be just as soft as honeysuckle petals--if the scent of lilac lingered on his fingers---

“Nico?” Will asked curiously, breaking Nico from his very unhelpful thoughts.

“Yeah? What?” Nico asked, voice more curt then he was intending. He flinched at his own tone, though Will seemed unaffected.

“Did you need anything else?” Will asked patiently.

“And...the gardenia?” Nico asked hopefully, cringing at his lack of tact.

“Yeah, of course,” Will said cheerfully as he stood up and motioned towards the cabin. On the back porch in a a large pot was a green shrub with decadent and beautiful white flowers. Will patted the pot fondly. “I love gardenias, though they can be very picky and temperamental.”

“Really, why?” Nico asked him.

“It’s just the way they are,” Will said, before suddenly blushing a bit as he bundled up some of the flowers for him. “They...um...they’re pretty prim. All about refinement and...love. Like a wedding flower.”

“Oh,” Nico said, oh so eloquently. “What do lilacs mean?”

“What?” Will asked, taken aback by the sudden question.

“What does...what does lilac mean? Like in the language of flowers.”

“I hope that the potion works well,” Will told him, holding out the flowers for him. Nico’s hand brushed his, and Nico almost melted into the ground. He was so warm, it should have been impossible.

“Yeah, me too.”

* * *

“Nico, what did you do?”

Nico didn’t particularly like the sound of that.

He paused in the green and turned to stare at Lou Ellen, who was taping her foot impatiently at him. Nico attempted to meet her disappointed look with a glare, but found that he was lacking in the fear-factor.

“What do you mean, what did I do?” Nico asked with a huff. “I didn’t do anything!”

“Like Hades you did! I just heard, Hermes cabin pilfered some of your potion from Hypnos cabin. And, well, you ought to see!” Lou Ellen grabbed him by the arm and pulled him towards the infirmary. All of Ares cabin was seemingly down for the count--giggling and gazing up at the clouds and making gauze crowns and generally acting dopey and weird.

“Hey Nico,” said Percy Jackson, grinning weirdly from his cot. Annabeth from Hermes Cabin was holding his hand and trying to look mad even though Percy was kissing her hand and giggling. 

“Now you owe me a coke and my boyfriend’s brain,” Annabeth informed Nico sourly.

“You’re cute,” Percy said, fluttering his eyelashes at her. Annabeth at least had the decency to blush and look somewhat pleased and embarrassed.

“Wait, my potion did that?!” Nico demanded. “How? I made a dream-oil!”

“Just because a potion was supposed to do something doesn’t mean it does. Intent matters a lot, so, what were you thinking about or doing when you were making the potion?” Lou Ellen asked him.

“And you better get an antidote fast, because I’m not dealing with this forever!” Leo from Apollo Cabin huffed as he strapped down a camper who tried to hug him.

He hadn’t really done anything. Maybe he had been watching out for Will Solace around Camp, and maybe...just maybe he had been finding excuses to go look in the garden. Okay and maybe he had been taking his sweet time looking over his infusing oils and taking in the scent of flowers that were now inherently linked to his memories of Will Solace, and imagining how sweet and gentle Will Solace would kiss him. But it hadn’t distracted him, not really. He had even delivered the dream-oil to Clovis on time. So it was insulting to Nico that he was being blamed for something when he had been nothing but good. There had been no hex-making or jinx pouches or anything, after all it was hard to have your heart into the dark magical arts when you were mentally curling up with a cute boy in a flowering field somewhere…

“Okay...this is totally my fault,” Nico admitted with a sigh. “Alright...I’ll...I’ll figure something out!”

Nico left the infirmary, brain swirling with ideas. He had to undo a spell...so a simple knot spell might work. There was plenty of rope around the cabin. But he would need a purifying agent, to make sure that the unravelling was untarnished by other magic.

So there wasn’t anything he could really do. He could help it, not really. He did need to talk to a child of Demeter...a specific child of Demeter…

“Oh, hey Nico. What’s up?” Will’s voice was cheerful as he looked up from the strawberry plants. It was unfair how cute he was, Nico thought as he chewed on his lip. How on Earth was he ever supposed to get anything done and not mess it up royally with Will Solace around? Now he wasn’t going to be able to look at a strawberry plant without thinking of the way Will’s tank top was sliding off his shoulder and the constellation of freckles on the base of his neck. There were only so many plants in the world, and if he could only imagine Will Solace when he was spell casting Nico would only be making love-spells from then on.

“I accidentally cursed a whole bunch of people and was hoping you could give me some sage so I could purify a rope I need for another spell that will hopefully lift the curse?” Nico asked, equal parts sheepish and hopeful. Will stared at him for a solid ten seconds, which felt like the longest ten seconds of Nico’s life, before breaking out into a smile.

“Did you now?” Will asked, sounding very amused.

“To be fair though it was your fault,” NIco grumbled.

“What was that?” Will asked, confused.

“Nothing, nothing,” Nico said. “So what do you say? Anything you could do for a witch in a pinch?”

Will rubbed his chin, before slowly and dutifully offering a grin and a nod.

“I think I have just the thing.” 

Nico was surely cursed.


End file.
